Hulk Hogan still unknowingly retweeting celebrity pictures as Rio Ferdinand and Drake appear on under-fire former WWE star's Twitter

Supposed 'fans' of Hogan have used pictures of the current and former Arsenal players to pretend they are showing support for Hogan

Jack de Menezes
Monday 27 July 2015 10:15 EDT
Comments
Hulk Hogan has fallen for a Twitter hoax in retweeting pictures of current and former Arsenal players
Hulk Hogan has fallen for a Twitter hoax in retweeting pictures of current and former Arsenal players (Getty Images/Twitter)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

It's not a good time to be Hulk Hogan. The wrestling icon saw his WWE contract terminated with immediate effect last week after a leaked audio recording revealed him making racial slurs, his history with the brand was completely erased from their website, and now he's retweeting pictures of black Arsenal players who he believes are supporting him and claiming he's not a racist.

Online trolls are targeting the 61-year-old with tweets that appear to offer support to the under-fire wrestler. In a string of pictures, different users have sent messages that claim Hogan is not a racist and they still love him, along with supposed pictures of themselves asking for a retweet.

However, the pictures clearly aren’t of them, and instead have shown Arsenal players Danny Welbeck alongside Jack Wilshere, former Arsenal stars Emmanuel Eboue and Andrey Arshavin and current Liverpool defender Kolo Toure.

Hogan has retweeted the messages, completely oblivious to who those in the pictures actually are, and led to a number of further tweets criticising the ‘Hulkster’ for his unintentional error.

Hogan has previous when it comes to retweeting ill-advised tweets, having republished pictures of murderer Raoul Moat, missing girl Madeleine McCann and Austrian paedophile Josef Fritzl.

Despite the tweets being sent in his direction on Sunday, Hogan clearly hadn't learnt his lesson as the barrage continued on Monday. The pick of the bunch came when an image of rapper Drake alongside former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand appeared on his Twitter feed, and it was soon followed by more familiar faces from the Premier League, as West Ham's Mauro Zarate and Adrian and Everton striker Romelu Lukaku were included.

Even former Arsenal defender Martin Keown made an appearance alongside current Gunners midfielder Mathieu Flamini.

After the audio clip of Hogan repeatedly using a racially derogative term, the WWE released the following statement having already cut him from the website and TV show Tough Enough.

“WWE terminated its contract with Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan). WWE is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in